The weak side there in the corner got beat on the reverse.
Now we go back to the right side with Morrison on the toss sweep right.
And he gets about five yards to midfield.
Here they go up the middle with him.
He is just a tough runner.
Again, you have to gang tackle him right there.
You had about six or seven guys right there.
That's true.
This is the time that we have to stop him and take some chances.
And we went into a goal line set here and ended up stopping him.
And the fullback right up the middle on the track.
Excellent defense to stop the ball.
You get the ball back after a punt.
Opticar here.
The pass to Huck.
Yeah, that's just a regular bootleg.
We faked the ice hook to Kip up the middle.
You can see that right there.
And then JD rolls out to the outside.
Christopher Larson does a great job of hitting the outside linebacker.
Matt comes up and catches the ball and bakes the tack.
And you'll see a face mask penalty probably perhaps right here.
The officials stand behind him.
And the real thumb is that if they can't see it, they can't call it.
And that's what happened in that instance.
Okay, anyway, a big gain for the Rams.
They are now at their own 43.
They string this up pretty well.
Yeah, we went to a sweep right there.
And we ended up getting dragged down by the nose guard.
Here JD has lots of time.
He goes deep.
And again, Newman is right there to make the catch.
Big gain.
Yeah, it's a great adjustment to the ball by John.
And JD did a good job of getting it on the outside there.
Okay, here's another look from the ground level.
He just throws it up for grabs.
And later in the contest, he had some problems.
Wasn't able to hit those patterns.
But this one, he got a big gain out of it.
Yeah, that was a big play for us.
Okay, first down Rams now inside the Burlington 40.
JD throws the out pass and just...
That was just a bootleg again.
And just didn't quite execute it there.
Now we're running the screen up the middle.
John just a little screen up the middle.
And he does a good job by getting it up there.
That play was set up very well.
Here's another look at it.
He just picks him out of the middle there.
And he's got some good yardage coming up the gut.
Yep.
Okay, now we're down at the 26 yard line.
Little play action pass.
Pass over the middle for good yardage.
Again, that play worked well for you most of the night.
Yeah, that was Matt Huffigan.
They were bringing that weak side line back in.
So we felt that we could take advantage of it any time.
Okay, and West Valley definitely on the move here.
Opticard goes up and out to John Newman.
A little bit of contact right there.
What did you think of that?
Well, I just think that the ball wasn't catchable.
And it was a good call.
Okay, the out pattern here.
We're going to take another look at this.
This is John Greninger on the receiving end.
Can't quite hold on.
But as you see right there, that's a pretty hard hit.
And tough to hang on to that football.
Yeah, that turf's tough at that time when you slam down on it like that.
Okay, now we go out to the out pattern.
And again, JD Opticard was hit as he threw it.
And here comes the fourth down play.
And I know you said you thought he may have got into the end zone on this at the outside of the play.
Yeah, we thought we had this play kind of a backup play.
But Mike's ankle's still not 100%.
In most cases, Mike would have caught that on full stride.
He would have been in the end zone.
That was a fourth down play.
The ball goes back over to Burlington, first and 10 at the seven yard line.
If you see, 11 West Valley Rams up on the line.
And Ryan Morrison breaks it 93 yards.
But the play was called back due to a clipping penalty.
Why 11 men on the side on the ball?
Well, we knew that they were going to run the ball.
I mean, we weren't going to pass it in that field position.
So we brought 11 up to stop.
We needed the ball back.
And they had two clips on the front.
Did your heart skip a few beats when that play before you saw the play?
Yeah, that's no lie.
That definitely would have maybe, as they say, put the nail in the coffin.
But West Valley gets new life and they get pushed them back inside their five.
But Burlington ends up having to punt here.
And your kids get the ball inside their 50.
Notice how they never really given up.
Your intensity is picking up and picking up.
And that's a real key to a great TV.
Okay, now you go right to the air again.
This is just a little bit overthrown.
Yeah, it's a little bit long, but that's where we want the ball, not short.
Okay.
Now we go out to the out pass.
That one, was he just throwing it?
Yeah, John was getting double coverage.
J.D. just threw it away.
Third down over the middle.
Yeah, we thought that John would be open over the middle there.
And he was, and the ball was just a little high.
Okay, your fourth down, I guess the passing, this was a tough play right here out to Mendez.
He got turned around a little bit on that.
If anybody feels bad, Jimmy does on that.
But you've got to look at it.
Jimmy's our lead receiver down the line of catchers and yards per catch.
And he has like a 27 yards per catch.
And he's made great plays for us all year.
And that was just one instance where it didn't quite happen.
Final score, 21 to 14 in favor of Burlington.
West Valley comes up a little bit short in this quest for a state title.
But as you've been touching on the whole show, you're not the least bit ashamed or the least bit maybe even disappointed, are you?
No, in my own heart, you know, I believe that we're the best team, but we just didn't play at the time where we had to to show everybody we're the best team.
And that's just the breaks of the game.
And that's why it's such a great game of football because different things can happen in different situations.
But I think that the biggest thing that we got out of the season was that our senior leadership and the things that they learned through the football program and things that will carry on in life for them.
And winning and losing is not everything.
Okay, let's go back a little bit and talk, as we touched on a little bit earlier, the fact that you played a Burlington team that did get to play indoors.
You mentioned that the heat was a big factor and playing indoors was a big factor.
They got to play at the Tacoma Dome against Tumwater on Thanksgiving night in their semifinal game.
Well, you know, I don't feel it's fair.
It's an easy solution.
Either you have all the teams go inside and play in the semifinals or you have all the teams play outside in the semifinals.
And they complain about weather both sides of the mountains, but that's equal.
It snows on this side and it rains on the other side.
But I just think that it gives the other team too much of an advantage to play two games in a row inside.
And I've coached on the west side of the mountains and found out that it's helped us out going into the King Dome.
And we ended up playing in 83 against a Riverside team from the east side.
And we ended up scoring 21 points on them in the first half.
And they fought back in the second half and almost beat us.
And I felt at that time that the reason that we won that game was because of our opportunity to play the week before in Tacoma Dome.
You also had, of course, the long road to the playoffs being the number three team out of the mid valley.
You not only had to come back and beat two teams you lost to earlier in the season, you beat Hanford Good and you beat Eastmont rather well.
And then you had to go over and play a Cedarwood team that's also in the same league as Burlington is.
Well, I think, I'm not sure quite on the facts on this, but we're one of the only teams or close to a few teams that ever went through the bracket in the half berth
and playing three games in nine days and then make it into the final game.
And we got to be pretty proud of that accomplishment.
I am for my players and they kind of showed that in the second half that they weren't going to give up and they were going to give it their all.
Okay. That's it.
As far as the game goes, we're going to come back with some player reaction, talk with Coach Ortoff Moore about King Bowl 10 and I guess the Rams season in which they finished 11 and three.
Unfortunately, it didn't end in a victory, but they did themselves well in Seattle losing to Burlington in the King Bowl 21 to 14.
We'll be back in a moment.
Associated with West Valley High School football, the Rams battled back from two close regular season losses.
They went the hard way through the playoffs as the Mid Valley League's number three seed.
The Rams, though, gathered momentum after a one point loss to Eastmont in week five, eight straight victories and of course the trip to the King Bowl.
West Valley had an outstanding group of senior players last night their final chance to wear a Ram football uniform.
Here's some of the kids thoughts on their last football game and their last prep football season.
We had a really hard work season. We lost a few early.
We should have should have done better, but we bounced back and won eight straight, went all the way, won four playoff games.
We've been fighting back. We've had our backs against the walls and it feels good to have a great season, but we wish we could have taken one step further.
It's been a dream. It fell a little short, but still everybody's going to walk out with their heads high and they're going to feel good about playing football for West Valley High School.
In the playoffs, we just got in a row and we start playing well and like we can, but it's just, you know, right now it's really disappointing because to get that so close and then we didn't really play well that first half.
You know, it might have been a different outcome, but you know, we're proud and we're just happy we got here.
Back for some final comments with Coach Joe Ortoff before we leave you tonight of our special program on King Bowl X.
Coach, I know your seniors meant a lot to you. You had a great nucleus of seniors on this year's team.
I know you've said many words about them, but I guess now's your chance for one last on a public setting.
Well, you know, I really appreciate all the work they've done for us this year and probably the hardest thing is going to be is when we have our banquet in about a week and is to say goodbye to them or not goodbye,
but that we won't have the opportunity to coach them again because we really enjoyed it this year and I can speak for my total coaching staff that they've been a pleasure to work with.
There's lots of fans going over, I'm sure, and I know the place on the West Valley side was definitely full of red, white, and blue. A big crowd went over there.
You had a lot of support this week, not only from West Valley, but from the whole area as well.
Well, that's what's nice about it. Besides just West Valley, we had people from every part of the community here and we really appreciate that support and that's probably one of the key reasons why we've been successful and it's just a nice feeling and we would like to thank them.
You mentioned the seniors, you're going to miss them. Saw the Nucleus returning, a lot of those with Kyle Foy and some of those younger guys that you had playing yesterday.
That's one thing I try to do I refuse to talk about next year because it just finished last night, but yeah, things are looking up.
Okay. Thank you for joining us, Coach. We appreciate you taking the time and have fun with your wife on her birthday.
I will.
Okay. 11 wins, 3 losses. The 3 West Valley losses by a total of 10 points. An outstanding season for the West Valley Rams. They provided countless hours of excitement for lots of people around the Yakima area.
Congratulations Rams. You did your school, your fans, and your community proud. Again, the final of King Bowl X, the state AA football championship.
Burlington Edison 21, West Valley 14. And we'd like to thank everyone who made this broadcast possible, particularly the folks out at West Valley High School.
West Valley Principal Jerry Craig, Mathletic Director Dick Welch, and again Coach Joel Ortoff. And thank you for joining us. Good night.
Good night.